Aysedasi's Le Mans

Within moments, the 66th Vingt Quatre Heures du Mans was under way.  Amazing when you think about it, from my first race in 1986 I had now seen nearly 20% of all the Le Mans 24 Hour races!  The cars were soon flashing past us at the end of their first racing lap, Martin Brundle in the Toyota taking poleman Bernd Schneider in the Mercedes for the lead.  This was my first sighting of those incredible Toyotas, looking for all the world like slightly scaled-down versions of the incredible TS010 sports prototypes from 1992 and 1993.  Fabulous looking cars.  The Mercedes and the Porsches, for all their relative speed, looked positively antiquated in comparison.  One thing was clear from the very start of the race, Peter and I both knew which team we were rooting for this year!

I managed to take quite a few photographs which I've reproduced here.  The fencing is of course a nuisance, more so the fence posts, but I've kept the photos notwithstanding the pesky things.  

The race had started in rather dull and overcast conditions, the weather having deteriorated during that dreadful journey to Le Mans despite starting out in bright sunshine when we left Le Havre, but it was a rather grey Le Mans which greeted us on our arrival.  After half an hour or so of the race, however, Brundle was still leading, and, just as important, the sun came out...  

Peter and I stayed watching the race in the same spot for 40-45 minutes until most of the first round of pit stops had been completed.  Although the location wouldn't have been my first choice beforehand, I was delighted with the position, as it not only kept us out of the huge packed crowds on the tribunes but more importantly, it also provided me with what proved to be an excellent vantage-point from which to take photographs of the cars.  Even though these were still at the mercy of the dreaded debris fencing, they were far better than anything I would have been able to take from the tribunes.  Although it is always great fun to be on the tribunes and to take pictures of the cars as they are lined up and the drivers as they take part in the pre-race parade (if we get there in time, that is!), I would be prepared to swap that for the relatively unhurried and relaxed atmosphere of the Ford Chicane.